PROGRESS IN PROGRESSO NEIGHBORHOOD'S RESIDENTS TAKE AIM AT NUDE CLUB AND CRIME RATE.

It was all string bean fields and bungalows -- considered sun country boondocks on the outskirts of a growing boom town.

Forty years ago, Northeast Progresso residents walked to the end of dirt roads off Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale to pick up their mail in postal route boxes.

"You had to watch for scorpions when you stuck your hand in," said Frank Metzger, a resident for 42 years.

"When we first bought here, we considered very seriously whether we wanted to be that far out," said Bill Williamson, who bought his house in the 1200 block of Northeast 13th Avenue 40 years ago. "Now, it's not far enough."

Residents in the subdivision -- sandwiched between the railroad tracks on the west, Federal Highway on the east, Sunrise Boulevard on the south and Northeast 13th Street on the north -- not so long ago worried about water lines and electricity.

But in the 1980s, their concerns have turned to crack cocaine, absentee landlords, prostitution and a tarnished reputation barring a better class of newcomers.

"The problem is overcoming the perception that the area is still unsafe," said Steve David, owner of Century 21 Tri-City Realty on the corner of Northeast 17th Way and Sunrise Boulevard.

David also owns two apartment complexes behind his real-estate office. "We have a hell of a time trying to get tenants, as well as retaining our own employees -- because they're scared."

David, who was a leading neighborhood activist in the 1970s, is under attack by the neighborhood association because one of his apartments is in shabby condition.

David said he has all but given up, and is thinking about selling both apartments and the office building.

"From eight in the morning, it's just a drug store outside," David said.

He spent $70,000 last year remodeling and painting one apartment building. But he will not put any money into the other until the Booby Trap, a nude dancing club across the street, is shut down.

The Booby Trap has become the sharpest thorn in the neighborhood's side, taking the blame for much of the area's ills.

"The women in this neighborhood cannot take a walk by themselves without getting hassled by guys looking to pick up a hooker," said Bob Schaffer, president of the Northeast Progresso Civic Association.

"It's very hard to bring up children in a society with corrupt morals," said Marilyn Mackel, of the 1200 block of Northeast 16th Avenue.

The neighborhood is comprised mostly of what Schaffer calls "woopies," well-off older people who have lived there for years, and middle-class people who saved for years to buy a home.

Mackel and her husband, Michael, are one of a few dozen young couples who have stayed in the neighborhood of about 2,000 full-time residents and 3,000 winter and transient residents.

They have four children -- and worry about the clientele at the Booby Trap, and the prostitution and drugs that plague the blocks between Sunrise Boulevard and Northeast 11th Street.

The Booby Trap "came in and destroyed a residential area," Mackel said. "They came in and planted their ugly seed of corruption and nobody can do anything about it."

Assistant City Attorney Lindsey Payne said the city has been battling with the Booby Trap since 1986. The nightclub, she said, is in blatant violation of the city's zoning code that prohibits nude entertainment within 750 feet of a residential area.

But the nightclub has kept the city in court for more than two years and a federal judge has ruled the establishment can operate while the legal wrangling continues.

Phillip Gori, part owner of the club, said the residents are blaming the nightclub for problems that existed in the neighborhood before the club moved in 2 1/2 years ago.

"I think it's somewhat of a dream of these guys to use us as a scapegoat," Gori said. "The area's gotten better since I've been here."

Gori said he would like to join the civic association and work with the residents in the area. He said he would also like to put together a deal with the civic association to buy the ill-kept apartments next to the nightclub.

"I don't want my customers getting involved with crack heads and prostitutes either," Gori said. "I'd like to help them in any way I can."

While some residents say the neighborhood will not stabilize until the Booby Trap leaves town, most say they believe the community is still worth fighting for.

"Everybody likes Northeast Progresso. This is one of the best sections of town there is," said Edward Matusik, of the 1100 block of Northeast 13th Avenue. He noted that residents are within walking distance of the beach, The Galleria, a Publix and dozens of restaurants and businesses along Sunrise Boulevard and Federal Highway.

Frank and Mary Metzger built their cinder-block stucco house on Northeast 16th Avenue in 1946 for about $14,000. They paid $17 annually in taxes their first few years there; now they pay more than $500 each year.

"Thirteenth Street was all string beans," Metzger said.

What some longtime residents probably do not know is that the Progresso section of Fort Lauderdale grew out of a sales gimmick at the turn of the century.

Fort Lauderdale Historical Society records show the Florida Fiber Co. bought 1,300 acres in the area in the late 1800s, hoping to grow sisal hemp in the rural area they named Progresso. By 1895, the venture had failed and the company, which was also selling farmland in the Everglades, threw in cheap Progresso lots to attract buyers.

Today, the area is split into three sections: Northeast Progresso; North Lauderdale Progresso, the downtown area just north of City Hall; and North Progresso Park, the mostly low-income residential area west of the railroad tracks.

While Northeast Progresso has never attracted the very wealthy, it was for many years a haven for middle-class homesteaders who built small, post-Art Deco homes that today sell for less than $100,000, and European tourists at the ma-and-pa motels.

Schaffer said the neighborhood's gradual demise came in the early 1980s, when the recession hit the rental community hard. In order to meet skyrocketing mortgages, Schaffer said, landlords lowered their standards to fill their rooms. Then the Booby Trap moved in.

But many residents say the neighborhood is making a comeback. They give credit to increased police patrol and heavy-handed civic association.

"It really makes a difference when you have a policeman who's like a friend," Marilyn Mackel said.

Officer Tom Duffey has worked the day shift in the neighborhood for several years.

"We used to have a lot of hookers and a lot of pimps and druggies over on 17th Avenue," Duffey said. "You don't see them near as much anymore -- and I like to think we've discouraged some of the activity."

Police officials say an aggressive community policing program in the last year has made a difference.

Police records show that in the first half of 1988, there were 88 prostitution arrests in the Northeast Progresso area. In the second half of the year, there were 55 arrests made for prostitution, or a decrease of nearly 38 percent.

Likewise, narcotics arrests in the neighborhood dropped from 50 in the first half of the year to 41 in the second half, or a decline of 18 percent.

While the police are fighting crack cocaine and prostitutes, the civic association is coming down hard on absentee landlords and the lax upkeep at the dozens of motels and short-term apartments.

Civic association officials said they report the locations of overflowing dumpsters and yards filled with debris to the city. Next to drugs and prostitution, Schaffer said, poorly maintained buildings are his worst enemy. In fact, he is working with other residents to buy up neglected buildings, renovate them, and then sell them at a profit.

If they do not make it work, Schaffer said, the end is near.

"It's a keystone neighborhood in the whole northeast," he said. "If this neighborhood goes, it's going to be the beginning of the end for residential Fort Lauderdale."